The first thing Loving realized, when he regained consciousness, was that his blindness was only temporary. For that he was grateful. But since he was still tied to the chair, and it could only be a matter of moments before the General returned, how long could he expect that to last?
The second thing he realized was that there was a tugging at the tape strapping him to the chair. Someone was cutting him loose.
“Please do not move,” the voice behind him said. “The door is open. The General could return at any moment.”
“Shohreh!” Loving whispered under his breath.
“Do not move. It is hard to cut your bonds with one arm still in a sling.”
“How did you find me?”
“I have been here for some time,” she said, still working. He could feel his bonds slowly loosening. “I was waiting for an opportunity to slip inside. This is the first chance they have given me to be alone with you. I was able to persuade Miss Magda to provide a list of all properties held by the General. After giving her a taste of what would happen if she did not.” She paused. “I am…sorry for what you have had to endure on my account.”
“Never mind that. Did you call the police?”
“No.”
“What? I told you to call Lieutenant Albertson at-”
“I thought it best that we handle this ourselves.”
Loving wanted to argue, but his brain was too muddled, and at the moment, the one thought that was uppermost on his mind was getting out of there before his torturers returned. “How’s it comin’?”
“Almost there.” Loving felt a final thrust from behind the chair. “Done. You are free.”
Loving started to rise. His muscles ached from being bound so long, making it difficult to move. He was cut in about a thousand places and-he suddenly realized-naked. He searched the room for something he could use to cover himself.
“Stop!” she hissed. “They’re coming back. Make it seem as though you are still bound.”
Loving heard the approaching footsteps on the other side of the doorway. Even though his instinct was to bolt, he returned to the chair he had come to hate so much. Shohreh hid somewhere in the back behind a table.
The General was smiling as he entered. “Ah, you are awake. Perhaps you have had some more thoughts about whether you would like to talk to me?”
Loving quickly sized up the situation. He could burst forth and tackle the General, but Emil was right behind him, holding his gun. There was no way Loving could get to him before a bullet stopped him cold. It would be a suicide run.
“Maybe I’m ready to talk. Whaddaya wanna know?”
The General eyed him suspiciously. He was probably caving too quickly after resisting so long. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t take long for the General to realize that he was no longer tied to the chair. Especially if he started again with the cattle prod.
“What do you know about my operation?”
“Which? The kiddie sex or the kiddie terrorism?”
The General pursed his lips. “Whichever brought you to me.”
While Loving considered his answer, he saw Shohreh emerging from the shadows. Somehow, she had made her way to the front of the room, near the door. She seemed able to move without making the slightest sound. She was inching toward Emil, as if she thought she might attack him from behind. Seemed foolhardy to him, when Emil had a gun and she had an arm in a sling. But there was no way he could stop her without exposing them both. The best he could do was buy her some time.
“I was lookin’ for the terrorists behind Oklahoma City.”
“And you think that was my group?”
“I think you played a part. But your operation is much too podunk to have done it alone. You needed help. Inside information.”
“And where do you think I obtained this information?”
In fact, Loving had an idea, but he wasn’t going to tell him that. “I dunno. I was tryin’ to find out when I lucked into your little sex slave house. And that’s really all I know.”
“And who have you told about this?”
“No one. I never had a chance.” Shohreh was very close now, just behind Emil. He had to hand it to her-she knew how to move quietly. “Didn’t report in to the senator, didn’t call the police. No one knows.”
The General folded his hands. “I believe you. Now then. Was that so hard? If you had only told me this sooner you could have spared yourself much misery.”
“Yeah. But now you’re gonna kill me.”
“True. But that was an inevitability the moment you entered my house. The pain you have experienced here was not. Emil?”
Loving watched as Emil raised his weapon and carefully pointed it at Loving’s face. He knew he couldn’t escape.
Shohreh, if you are going to do something, this would be a good time…
He had expected that at best she might try to wrestle the gun away from him, giving Loving time to get into the fight. Instead, she seemed to fly forward, lifting off one knee and switching to the other in midair, kicking the gun out of his hands.
The General whirled around and started toward her. That was Loving’s cue. He burst out of the chair that had held him so long. His entire body ached, but he put that out of his mind so he could do what he needed to do. What he wanted to do. He grabbed the General in a neck hold, twisting his head sideways. The General tried to resist, but Loving had him in a lock.
Emil stopped, unsure whether to save the General or fight Shohreh.
Loving looked up at her. “Can you keep Emil busy for a moment or two?”
“Quite easily.”
“Good. I’d like a moment alone with the General.”
“Do not be foolish,” Emil said, holding his hands between him and Shohreh. “I have talked to Mikhail. I know you are trained in the art of Muay Thai. That will not help you. I have fought the most skilled-”
He didn’t get any further. Shohreh silenced him with a swift kick to the jaw.
Loving almost smiled. And this was the woman he’d told to wait outside so she didn’t get hurt. Sheesh.
Loving held the General’s head tightly between his hands. He forced the little man backward, towering over him, pushing him against a wall. He bashed his head back hard.
The General’s eyes seemed to roll about in his head. He was obviously more accustomed to dishing out pain than taking it.
“Do you remember what I said?” Loving growled, leaning into the man’s face. “What I said I’d do if I ever got loose.”
“Yes,” the General said. His left eye was twitching. “But I do not believe it. I do not think you are a killer.”
Loving could feel the damaged teeth in his sore mouth clenching tightly together. “You-hurt me. You took away my dignity. I-thought I could take anything, but”-his hands pressed tighter together against the man’s head-“I think you deserve to die.”
The General seemed to deflate, to grow smaller right before Loving’s eyes.
“Go ahead, American. You come from a nation of murderers. What’s another death to you?”
“You cut me! You hit me with that prod again and again.” Loving gasped for air. “You’ve ruined the lives of countless children. You should be destroyed. For the sake of humanity.”
“Then do it!” the General shouted. “Do it!”
Loving took a step back, slowly bringing his respiration under control. “But you’re right, damn it. I’m not a killer. And I won’t become one for a sick bastard like you.” With a single powerful thrust, Loving slammed the General’s head against the wall again. His knees gave. He crumbled to the floor.
Turning, Loving saw that Shohreh had thoroughly dispatched Emil-and recovered his gun.
She was pointing it right at him.
“Hey now-what’s this about?”
“Move away,” Shohreh said evenly.
“Move? But-” Loving glanced at the General’s crumpled body. He was barely conscious. “Wait a minute. What are you thinkin’?”
“The same thing you just said. He deserves to die.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean-”
“Move away!”
“Shohreh!”
“I don’t want to hurt you, Loving. You have done so much for me!” Her voice lowered. “But I will, if I have to. To get to him. Now move away.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Then I will be forced to kill you.”
No wonder she wouldn’t call the police. One look into her eyes told Loving she meant what she said. Reluctantly, he stepped aside.
Shohreh crept down beside the addled General. She took his collar in one hand and pressed the gun against his face. “Do you know who I am?” she shouted.
The General’s eyelids fluttered. “Little Djamila.”
Loving did a double take. “What? You’re Djamila?”
Shohreh’s eyes became glassy, as if focused on some distant point. “That was my birth name. Back in Iraq. Before the war. After my parents were killed, I was lost, alone. I tried to survive, but the chaos was too great. I-” Her fingers tightened around the General’s throat. “This man said he would protect me. Care for me.”
“I did!” the General protested. “I fed you, clothed you. Without me, you might have died.”
“I did die. You killed me. Djamila died a thousand times over at the hands of your filthy customers!” Tears sprang unbidden to her eyes. “When I was too old to be of service to his clients anymore,” she told Loving, “he allowed me to join his cell of assassins. Finally I found the strength to leave him, but even then he lured me back to Oklahoma City. After that last betrayal, I knew there could never be peace for me. Not so long as he remained alive.”
“Shohreh,” Loving said, inching closer. “Think about this. You don’t want to be a murderer.”
Her eyes were cold black dots. “I do.”
“Then you’ll be no better than him.”
“I would never do the things he has done to me. And hundreds of other children.”
If he could just get close enough to get that gun away…“Shohreh, you’re making a mistake.”
“Perhaps, but there is no choice.” She pulled back the hammer. “This is for Djamila.”
“No!” Loving sprang forward, but he was much too late. The bullet burst into the General’s face point-blank. The wall was splattered with blood and brains.
Shohreh stepped away, dripping. “I will go with you,” she said, handing Loving the gun. “To the police. Whatever you think should be done.”
Loving took the gun and carefully emptied it. “You know that you’ll go to prison. Maybe for the rest of your life.”
Shohreh nodded slowly. Then, at last, her eyes turned back to the dead and motionless figure of the man who had tormented her for so long. “It was worth it.”